November 18 Events In History

1307 – According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son’s head
1477 – William Caxton printed the first book in the English language, The Dictes and Sayengis of the Phylosophers.
1626 – St. Peter’s Basilica is consecrated.
1883 – A Connecticut school teacher, Charles F. Dowd, proposed a uniform time zone plan for the U.S. consisting of four zones.
1883 – Canadian and American railroads adopt time zones. Prior to this, most cities had their own local time, making it difficult for railways to be on time and confusing passengers. To solve this problem, private railways decided to divide the continent into 4 distinct time zones – the lines of which are very close to the time zone lines today.
1903 – Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty signed between Panama and the US. The treaty created the Panama Canal Zone and set up the terms for the construction of the Panama Canal. Until 1979, the Panama Canal Zone was a territory of the United States. The French began construction on the Panama Canal in 1881 but had to stop due to engineering problems. The US took over the construction in 1904 and finished building the canal in 1914.

1916 – During World War I, Allied General Douglas Haig called off the First Battle of the Somme after five months. The Allies had advanced 125 square miles at a cost of 420,000 British and 195,000 French soldiers. German losses were over 650,000 men.
1963 – Push button phones are used for the first time. Bell systems started replacing rotary dial phones by push button phone in the United States. Push button phones use keys or buttons to dial a number.
1978 – Mass suicides in Jonestown. Over 900 people committed suicide at the behest of Jim Jones the founder and head of a group called Peoples Temple. Formed in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the mid-1050s, members of the group moved to Guyana in 1974 and set up a settlement outside Georgetown and called in Jonestown.
1978 – The Blues Brothers appear for the first time on Saturday Night Live.
1993 – South Africa adopted a new constitution after more than 300 years of white majority rule. The constitution provided basic civil rights to blacks and was approved by representatives of the ruling party, as well as members of 20 other political parties.
2001 – The Nintendo Gamecube is first released in the United States.

1786 – German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was born in Eutin, Germany (He founded the German romantic style of music (Best known for his operas including Der Freischutz.
1789 – Photography inventor Louis Daguerre (1789-1851) was born in Cormeilles, near Paris (In 1839, at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, he announced his daguerreotype process, the first practical photographic process that produced lasting pictures.
1836 – British author Sir William Gilbert (1836-1911) was born in London (He wrote the verses for the famed Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas which poked fun at the British establishment (Among their operas; H.M.S (Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, The Mikado and The Yeoman of the Guard (He died in May 1911, suffering a heart attack while attempting to save a woman from drowning.

1860 – Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was born in Kurylowka in southwestern Russia (He achieved world fame for his interpretations of Schubert and Chopin (After World War I, he served briefly as the first premier of the Republic of Poland.
1923 – Alan Shepherd (First US Astronaut in Space)
1923 – Ted Stevens (American politician)
1933 – Bruce Conner (American painter, photographer, director)
1939 – Margaret Atwood (Canadian poet, author, critic)
1953 – Alan Moore (English author, illustrator)
1956 – Warren Moon (NFL Quarterback)
1968 – Owen Wilson (Actor)
1974 – Chloe Sevigny (Actress)
1975 – David Ortiz (Baseball player)
1980 – Denny Hamlin (NASCAR race driver)

1886 – Chester A (Arthur (American politician, 21st President of the United States)
1922 – Marcel Proust (French writer)

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